Frank Zappa

UMe and Zappa Records are chronicling Frank Zappa's 1972 - a period of great productivity for the artist despite the health challenges he faced as a result of being pushed into an orchestra pit by a crazed fan - in a new 4CD/1BD box set.  The original Waka/Jawaka and Grand Wazoo albums, on which Zappa debuted his "electric orchestra" concept, are presented on the Blu-ray disc in three high-resolution formats: 48kHz/24-bit Dolby Atmos, 48kHz/24-bit Dolby TrueHD 5.1, and 96kHz/24-bit PCM Stereo.  The first two CDs present unreleased takes of almost every track recorded during the albums' original sessions at Paramount Studios.  The third disc premieres a set of demos for George Duke's solo material recorded at Paramount, with Zappa serving as producer and guitarist. While Duke would go on to re-record these tracks on his own albums, the Zappa versions have never been officially issued until now.  This disc is rounded out by the "Grand Wazoo" live performance of "Approximate" from the Boston show of September 24, 1972, as originally mixed by Zappa at The Record Plant.  (The full show was issued in 2007 as Wazoo and is not repeated here.)  The fourth CD has the final full show of the "Petite Wazoo," from San Francisco's Winterland on December 15, 1972.  If you're interested in the original albums only, Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo are also returning to vinyl in both 180-gram black vinyl and color vinyl editions.  Zappa.com and uDiscovermusic.com will exclusively offer Waka/Jawaka on translucent green vinyl and The Grand Wazoo on brown marble vinyl, both with tip-on jackets and lithographs. They've been mastered from the analog tapes by Bernie Grundman and pressed at Optimal Media in Germany.